High frequency deep brain stimulation (DBS), such as of the thalamus or basal ganglia, represents a clinical technique for the treatment of disorders such as essential tremor and Parkinson's disease (PD). Pilot studies have also begun to examine the utility of DBS for treating dystonia, epilepsy, and obsessive compulsive disorder. However, understanding of the therapeutic mechanisms of action remains elusive. It is also unclear what stimulation parameters, electrode geometries, or electrode locations are better suited for existing or future uses of DBS.
A DBS procedure typically involves first obtaining preoperative images of the patient's brain, such as by using a computed tomography (CT) scanner device, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device, or any other imaging modality. This sometimes involves first affixing to the patient's skull spherical or other fiducial markers that are visible on the images produced by the imaging modality. The fiducial markers help register the preoperative images to the actual physical position of the patient in the operating room during the later surgical procedure.
After the preoperative images are acquired by the imaging modality, they are then loaded onto an image-guided surgical (lGS) workstation, such as the StealthStation® from the Surgical Navigation Technologies, Inc. (SNT) subsidiary of Medtronic, Inc., for example. Using the preoperative images being displayed on the IGS workstation, the neurosurgeon can select a target region within the brain, an entry point on the patient's skull, and a desired trajectory between the entry point and the target region. The entry point and trajectory are typically carefully selected to avoid intersecting or otherwise damaging certain nearby critical brain structures.
In the operating room, the patient is immobilized and the patient's actual physical position is registered to the preoperative images displayed on the IGS workstation, such as by using a remotely detectable IGS wand. In one example, the physician marks the entry point on the patient's skull, drills a burr hole at that location, and affixes a trajectory guide device about the burr hole. The trajectory guide device includes a bore that can be aimed using the IGS wand to obtain the desired trajectory to the target region. After aiming, the trajectory guide is locked to preserve the aimed trajectory toward the target region.
After the aimed trajectory has been locked in using the trajectory guide, a microdrive introducer is used to insert the surgical instrument along the trajectory toward the target region of the brain. The surgical instrument may include, among other things, a recording electrode leadwire, for recording intrinsic electrical brain signals, a stimulation electrode leadwire, for providing electrical energy to the target region of the brain, or associated auxiliary guide catheters for steering a primary instrument toward target region of the brain. The recording electrode leadwire is typically used first to confirm, by interpreting the intrinsic electrical brain signals, that a particular location along the trajectory is indeed the desired target region of the brain. The stimulation electrode leadwire, which typically includes multiple closely-spaced electrically independent stimulation electrode contacts, is then introduced to deliver the therapeutic DBS stimulation to the target region of the brain. The stimulation electrode leadwire is then immobilized, such as by using an instrument immobilization device located at the burr hole entry in the patient's skull. The actual DBS therapy is often not initiated until a time period of about two-weeks to one month has elapsed. This is due primarily to the acute reaction of the brain tissue to the introduced DBS stimulation electrode leadwire (e.g., the formation of adjacent scar tissue), and stabilization of the patient's disease symptoms. At that time, a particular one of the stimulation electrode contacts is then selected for delivering the therapeutic DBS stimulation, and other DBS parameters are adjusted to achieve an acceptable level of therapeutic benefit. However, these parameter selections are typically currently achieved via arbitrary trial-and-error, without visual aids of the electrode location in the tissue medium or computational models of the volume of tissue influenced by the stimulation.
The subthalamic nucleus (STN) represents the most common target for DBS technology. Clinically effective STN DBS for PD has typically used electrode contacts in the anterior-dorsal STN. However, STN DBS exhibits a low threshold for certain undesirable side effects, such as tetanic muscle contraction, speech disturbance and ocular deviation. Highly anisotropic fiber tracks are located about the STN. Such nerve tracks exhibit high electrical conductivity in a particular direction. Activation of these tracks has been implicated in many of the DBS side effects. However, there exists a limited understanding of the neural response to DBS. The three-dimensional (3D) tissue medium near the DBS electrode typically includes both inhomogeneous and anisotropic characteristics. Such complexity makes it difficult to predict the particular volume of tissue influenced by DBS.
A treating physician typically would like to tailor the DBS parameters (such as which one of the stimulating electrodes to use, the stimulation pulse amplitude, the stimulation pulse width, or the stimulation frequency) for a particular patient to improve the effectiveness of the DBS therapy. This is a complex problem because there are several different DBS parameters than can be varied. Because selecting a particular DBS electrode contact and parameter combination setting is typically a trial-and-error process, it is difficult and time-consuming and, therefore, expensive. Moreover, it may not necessarily result in the best possible therapy or in avoiding the above-mentioned undesirable side effects. Therefore, there is a need to provide help to speed or otherwise improve this DBS parameter selection process or to otherwise enhance DBS techniques.